Gay Marriage: Did Oregon Err By Waiting?

Tim Hibbitts may be the dean of Oregon pollsters. For almost four decades, Hibbitts, once a partner of the polling firm DHM Research, has crunched numbers and had a front row seat on the changes in the electorate in this state. His thoughtful analysis and broad understanding of Oregon history has made him invaluable to political journalists over the years, even though he long ago stopped polling for candidates (most of DHM's work is for corporate clients).

We sat down with Hibbitts the day after the election to ask about the results of specific races and what the political future holds for Oregon.  We'll be running clips from that interview over the next week. 

Here is a short clip in which Hibbitts addresses gay marriage. 

The context? The success of Washington's same-sex marriage referendum on Tuesday prompted a number of supporters here to wonder why Oregon chose not to ask voters to do the same in this state.

As has been widely reported, the largest gay rights organization in Oregon, Basic Rights Oregon, decided one year ago to not put an initiative on the ballot in Oregon in 2012.  BRO felt that it was too early to confront the challenge of amending Oregon's constitution to allow same sex marriage.

Here is Hibbitts' view.


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